The Truth About Weight-Loss Pills and Energy Drinks, for Knowledge and Profit

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The Truth About Weight-Loss Pills and Energy Drinks, for Knowledge and Profit

Simon le nippon

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Between medications and food, there’s a huge swath of edible products that don’t need approval from the Food and Drug Administration, including energy drinks, vitamins, weight-loss pills, and other supplements. And while the companies that make those goods test their products for safety, they don't usually offer test results that vouch for efficacy or mention the less savory ingredients that often lurk inside their pills and potions. Which leaves most of us wandering the aisles of GNC wondering if everything on the shelves is safe, or has a fraction of the miraculous powers claimed.

To determine whether that jug of protein power is really worth the cash, Neil Thanedar just launched LabDoor. LabDoor tests a wide variety of energy-granting, and muscle-building concoctions and grades them on safety, clinical efficacy, and the presence of potentially unhealthy ingredients including heavy metals, pesticides, and other unsavory trace elements. Thanedar dreamed up the idea for the startup when, while running a product-testing lab, his friends would regularly ask his professional chemist's opinion on the latest energy drink, muscle-building concoction or weight loss pill.

LabDoor opened up its service to the public this week, starting with testing the most popular energy drinks and vitamins on the market, including Red Bull, Five Hour Energy , One-A-Day and Centrum vitamins among others. “Next we’ll test creatine powders, sleep aides, and herbal supplements,” Thanedar says. “Eventually we want to add cosmetics and over-the-counter medications, so you can find out if there’s really a (quality) difference between a generic painkiller and Tylenol.” For example, what exactly is that carnuba wax doing in your generic ibuprofen? “If you look at painkillers and muscle gain supplements and powders, most manufacturers tell you what’s in them,” says Thanedar. “But even if you read the label, you still wouldn't understand what those ingredients do.”

Red Bull's grade on LabDoor

Image: LabDoor

To keep results rooted in the real-world, LabDoor goes out and buys off-the-shelf samples of products and takes them back to their Indianapolis, Indiana lab for testing. Each product gets a grade (from A to F) based on the lab results, and clinical studies on the main ingredients from the National Institute of Health and other medical research groups.

Some of the results are already in. LabDoor gives the energy shot Redline Power Rush 7hr Energy a D+ grade because it has an enormously high level of caffeine per ounce. "A shot is 11 times more potent per ounce than a Red Bull,” Thanedar says. “If you don’t know that, you could end up taking two or three shots per day without realizing how much caffeine you’re consuming." The popular cold fighter Airborne grabbed a C+ because studies have shown it's not clinically effective, though the ingredients are safe according to lab tests. Regular Redbull gets an overall B for safety and efficacy.

LabDoor has a website and iOS app, with plans to launch an Android app as the database of products grows. Thanedar is keeping the overall grade, clinical efficacy, and ingredient safety information free for anyone to view, but is working on a paid subscription service that will show an image of the product’s label and provide a more detailed breakdown of the ingredients in it and their effects.

The goal, Thanedar says, is to shine a light on all those questionable ingredients and eventually encourage manufacturers to be more transparent. Maybe the next time you and your biceps are shopping for protein powder, you'll know exactly what you're getting.